As aid convoy turns back

Fresh air strikes and clashes shook the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday after desperately needed aid deliveries were cut short by fighting.

More than 780 civilians — including 170 children — have been killed since Russia-backed regime forces launched an assault on the besieged enclave outside Damascus on February 18.

The brutal onslaught on the last major rebel stronghold near the capital, the latest regime offensive of the seven-year civil war, has sparked outrage but little action from the West.

Government troops have advanced rapidly across farmland in Eastern Ghouta in the past week, a monitor says, and as of early Tuesday controlled 40 percent of the enclave, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.